ALABAMATANIC
by troyellalove1
Summary: What's better than Titanic and rednecks? The two are combined in this funny and adventurous story. Cletus and his dog, Rufus, take their friends and go out onto the icy waters of a deep, huge lake. When they hit a piece of ice and realize they're destined to sink, they see a rescue boat on the horizon...but is it close enough? Or will the rednecks go into the lake?


_**June 28, 2022**_

In a muddy, fifty degree lake, four guys had on diving suits and were swimming around the bottom, where the visibility was barely more than ten feet with the lights they had on them. Their names were Harry, Jim, Jack, and Bob. They had developed a sign language to communicate underwater and were all swimming almost one hundred feet below the surface; five feet above the floor of the lake. Bob was in front of everyone, and he saw it first. It was sitting there and it stood out like the sun at the bottom of Lake Rufus.

*Three claps* *Chest pat* *Thumbs up* _I FOUND IT! _He turned around to his team behind him and they could see it clearly too.

There was an eerie-looking skeleton of a boat, covered in algae. It looked like a ghost structure, especially with their lights shining in that weird way on it. The four of them swam around it to the spot where there was a split. They could almost recreate in their minds the mayhem of what went on that night, and it felt weird to know that they were looking at not a replica, but the real thing. The real thing that had captured the town's fascination for over a decade. The real Alabamatanic.

There were two pieces of it, and this one was about twenty feet long and almost ten feet high. It had one level on it, so the floor was far up enough that people on it would've easily been able to see over the top. In the space below the floor, over a dozen wooden beams held up the floor. A lot of them had fallen off, but you could still see their purpose. There were three bulkheads visible and you could see the damage from the collision at the bottom of them.

Jim kept swimming and tried to search for the other piece. It had to be there somewhere. After thirty seconds, he turned around and gave the signal that Bob had given.

Jack was the next one to see it. The back part of the Alabamatanic lay upright, embedded about five feet into the lake's floor. It was almost ten feet long. They all gathered around it and inspected it for things no one may have known about, but all they found was an algae-covered, rotted, wooden boat.

After a few minutes of taking it in, they swam around to the back. They all looked at the word on the back of the boat: ALABAMATANIC. It was written in big, black letters. After just over ten years of sitting there, you could barely see the faded paint and a lot of the word had been washed away completely. Jim had taken over a dozen pictures with the waterproof camera, as requested by the town's paper, wanting to show the real thing to everyone.

They were in awe and would've stayed down there forever if Jack hadn't given the signal that the air was low. His team started to ascend to the surface. As they did, the Alabamatanic slowly faded away from sight.

Up at above the lake, twenty-six people were waiting there, anxious to see the pictures. They looked at them in fascination for over ten minutes until the crowd started to walk away, along with the camera, leaving only the team and Cletus. Cletus didn't need to see pictures or hear a story or anything. The best story of that fateful night came from him. He was one of the men on the Alabamatanic. The only survivor.

"So, we've got the pictures. They're gonna need to hear the story from you so they can put it in the article." Harry said to Cletus.

"And I'll be giving it to them."

"Any chance we could…hear it first?"

Cletus looked at the four of them and then back out into the middle of the lake, the very spot where his boat had gone down.

"I haven't spoken to anyone about it but the people who rescued me on the night of the sinking."

"Well, just try to tell us, please? We're the only ones who have ever seen that thing after it went below the water. We got the pictures…"

Cletus walked past them and to the edge of the lake, looking out on it, remembering the event exactly as it happened.

After a few minutes, Jack asked, "Um…about that story, Cletus?"

He waited a while to respond. "You want to hear that story?"

"Yeah!" They all said.

"Alright. Come on over hear and I'll tell you."

They walked over to a huge rock twenty feet from the lake's edge and sat down.

"Before I start, let me just remind you that there were obviously no lifeboats and the water was freezing. I was the only one able to survive. With about ten people and twenty-some dogs on board, everyone else but me died."

"Well why was that? And why did this lake get named Lake Rufus after that event?"

"I'll explain everything."

"Alright. Let's hear it."

"Let me take you back ten years…"

_**April 10, 2012**_

"There's nothing left, Rufus. What should I do?"

*Sniff* *Sniff* *BARK*

"Good point, dog. We don't really have anything, so what do we got to lose?"

Cletus and his dog, Rufus, were at a poker game. There was an amazing wooden boat nearly fifty feet long, ten feet tall and twenty feet wide made of wood that had been painted white. On the back, it said the name of the boat in big black letters: ALABAMTANIC.

"When you got nothing, you got nothing to lose." Cletus put everything on the table.

_A minute later_

"YEAH WE DONE IT! WE DONE IT RUFUS WE DONE WON OURSELVES A GREAT WOOD BOAT!" Cletus attached it to the back of his rusty, beat-up 2009 Ford F-150.

A few miles later, Cletus calmed down and said, "You know what, Rufus, first chance we get, you and I and a bunch of my friends is driving to the beginning of the Wocahotchee and we're going all the way down the river into that wide open lake that it leads to! What does you think of that?"

*Pant* *Pant* *Pant* *Pant* *Pant*

"I agrees. We done won ourselves a great boat. I can't wait to use it."

When they got home, Cletus flew into his mobile home and picked up his phone. He sent out a voicemail to nine of his redneck friends: Tommy Joe, Lee, Billy Bob, Zeke, Bubba, Hoss, Cooter, Boo and Hunter.

"EVERYONE! I GOTS ME A GREAT BOAT! It's real long and perfect and everything! Tomorrow, come to the beginning of the Wocahotchee River and we is going down that whole thing and we'll finish at the lake that the river empties into! Then we'll camp there and go back in the morning! Bring your dogs! It's gonna be one hell of a day! And a night. Then another day…so get ready and get to the beginning of the river by tomorrow at six in the morning! Can't wait to see you!"

_**April 14, 2012**_

The Wocahotchee River lay sprawled out for what seemed like forever until it turned to the right. There was mist coming off of it, but not so much that you couldn't see the hundreds of lily pads in the partly-dirty water. There was the sound of bullfrogs and crickets and birds and everything natural, and at just past six, the sun was coming up.

The quiet was disrupted by Cletus and his truck. "Dag gum that there fartin' tailpipe, makin' all that noise. Here it is." They rolled up to the side of the river and Cletus shut off the engine, the farting tailpipe, and opened the door. He went around to the rear of his truck with Rufus and looked at his boat, and then at the back, where the word was written in big, black letters: ALABAMATANIC.

"Hey, there you is, Cletus! We all got here by now!" Zeke walked towards Cletus with his three dogs: Spike, Hunt and Tharp.

They both looked at the eight other people that were waiting by the river. Including Rufus, there were twenty-seven dogs.

"Now, this is what I calls a get together!" Cletus yelled. "You guys ready to hit the Wocahotchee?"

"Yeah! Let's go, Cletus!"

"Alright, let's get this thing loaded and in the river!'

Cletus and Lee helped to get the Alabamatanic onto the ground. It was turned so the nose was facing the river, and all ten of them pushed it to the edge.

"Ok, all of you get in and I'll start the motor. Then Rufus and I will jump in as it's going away."

Cletus brought Rufus back about twenty feet. The motor was started and twenty-six dogs and nine people were in the boat. They just needed the owners of the Alabamatanic. It was pulling away from the edge.

"Let's go, Rufus!" Cletus picked up his dog and jumped towards the river. He and Rufus hit their target and fell into the boat.

"You made it! You didn't fall in! That water is about fifty degrees you don't wanna go in there."

Cletus, Rufus, his friends, the rest of the dogs and the Alabamatanic went down the calm, lily-pad-covered waters of the Wocahotchee. It was 7:00 am now, and the sun was almost up completely.

"Hey, Rufus, c'mere, I wants to show you something." The dog picked up its head and looked at Cletus. "Come on." Rufus stood up and walked over to him.

Cletus grabbed Rufus's paws and brought him to the front of the boat. "Step up, critter." He put Rufus onto the front of the boat and stood him up.

"Come on, Rufus. Almost there." Cletus moved Rufus the highest he could go. "Now…open your eyes." Nothing happened.

'Oh yeah, your eyes is already opened. Well, look around." Cletus spread Rufus's front legs into wings. "Rufus! Rufus! You're flying!"

The dog looked back at Cletus and sniffed his arm. Rufus looked tired and bored.

*Pant* *Sniff* *Sniff *

"What does you think?"

Rufus was flying…ten feet in the air at about five miles per hour. He looked around slowly and saw a bullfrog, causing him to wriggle.

"Watch it, critter! Oops." Cletus dropped Rufus into the river. Hoss and Cooter, who were locked in a drinking contest, started laughing.

Rufus started swimming towards the bullfrog, but it got away. Cletus steered the boat over to him, but when he leaned out to grab Rufus, he fell over the edge and into the river himself.

He yelled out to Bubba, who was closest to the wheel. "Stop the boat! Stop it!"

He put down his Miller Lite and ran five feet towards the front. Bubba grabbed a lever and jerked it upwards. The boat started slowing down.

"Come on, dumb dog, back in the boat." Cletus grabbed Rufus and climbed into the Alabamatanic. He put the motor into power again and they continued down the Wocahotchee. "Guys, that water is so cold. You doesn't wanna go in that."

It was 11:30 at night. Cletus had taken the Alabamatanic and his redneck friends into the gator-filled part of the Wocahotchee. The gators were giving Cletus weird looks.

"Alright, guys, let's get out of this part, come on." He put the motor into full power and the Alabamatanic sped up to fifteen miles per hour. The gators drifted alongside the boat. He saw a little waterfall up ahead that he knew the gators wouldn't go through.

"I got you dumb critters!" They proceeded to the drop-off. The gators started to follow reluctantly, and then more slowly, until eventually, there was just one alongside the boat. Cletus turned the wheel hard to the left to swing the stern towards the right. The motor on the back collided with the gator and the propellers gave it serious gashes in its scales. It swam off immediately.

"Cletus! Watch out!" Tommy Joe yelled.

Cletus turned back around to see the drop-off five feet in front of him. The water alongside the boat started to get foamy and rough, so Cletus grabbed Rufus and held on.

The Alabamatanic shot ten feet down into the water below. Cletus was almost thrown out. Rufus was left hanging over the edge.

"No! Rufus! Come back over!" He pulled Rufus over the edge of the boat.

"Now, where is this place?"

"Cletus, this is where we were gonna camp! Here it is! We found it!'

They were in a huge circular lake, with water completely calm and nothing in it. There was a small patch of grass in front of them for where they were going to set up camp for the night.

Cletus started to direct the boat that way.

Zeke yawned. "I sure is tired. I had me some fartin' food, too. So I gotta take me a big old dump.

"You can do that in the woods. Hang on till we're there." Cletus put the motor into half power.

"What are you, European? Come on! Full speed ahead!" Hoss grabbed the lever and pushed it all the way forward. "We're off to the hill!"

Lee gasped. "I sees some more beer cans over there on the shore! Let's go see if they've been opened!" Cletus swung the wheel until the nose of the Alabamatanic pointed directly at the beer cans.

When they finally got there, Cletus saw that there was only one unopened beer can. "Well, it's better than nothing!" He put it to his mouth and drank the entire thing in one breath.

When he was done, Cletus let all the dogs sniff the can before throwing it into the lake. Then they started off towards the campsite they would make, moving quickly away from the shore.

Up ahead fifty feet, there was a sharp piece of ice sticking out of the water. The kind of ice that can break wood. The kind of ice that can break wood below the waterline.

Cletus didn't see the ice and the Alabamatanic kept moving at full speed. His friends didn't see it either; they were too busy drinking the last of the beer. "You know, Rufus, I loves doin' this stuff. Gets me away from all the crazy people who think everything has to be their way."

The ice was thirty feet away.

Rufus continued to look bored. "You know, dog, you should be glad I'm not just dumpin' you in the cage so I can do stuff like this, I let you do it with me."

"Hey, Cletus, this is the last beer can. It's your boat, you should get it."

"Alright! I got me a true friend!"

The ice was twenty feet away. But Cletus still hadn't seen it. This sharp, jagged object was protruding about a foot out of the water, directly in the path of the Alabamatanic.

Billy Bob spoke up. "Everybody, whatever's left in your beer can, hold it up. To Cletus, whose amazing boat got us here."

Ten beer cans were raised in the air. "To Cletus!"

"To me!" Cletus said. He drank the last of the beer.

Cletus looked away from his friends and at the lake in front of him. Wide open, with nothing in it. Except…except…

The ice was five feet away and the boat was moving too fast to stop. He looked down in front of him. It was four feet away. Three and a half. Three.

"Oh, come on! We got ourselves something here!" He grabbed the wheel of the boat and swung it hard to the left. The Alabamatanic's nose started to swing to port.

All the other guys had seen what was happening and looked over the side at the ice.

"Come on. Come on."

Cletus looked over Rufus, who was now asleep, and at the ice. It looked as if they weren't going to clear.

"Come on, I just won this thing! It can't get damaged on its first trip!"

"Don't worry, Cletus! This thing's unsinkable!"

But as everyone looked at the ice, then at the bottom of the Alabamatanic, they knew they were close. Too close. Ten rednecks watched as he they heard a grinding sound.

"No! Come on!"

But when Cletus looked more closely at the ice, it wasn't touching the boat. Bubba remembered the back of the Alabamatanic and ran forward. He grabbed the wheel and spun it to the right to clear the stern. The ice moved away and was left behind. Rufus stood up. The noise he made when he stretched was the grinding noise everyone heard. The ice never even touched the boat. Cletus looked and there was absolutely no damage.

"YES! GUYS, WE CLEARED!"

They had cleared. There was no flooding into the boat, and the Alabamatanic kept moving.

"Wow that was close." Cletus looked in front of him. There was nothing else in the lake except clear water in front of them. They weren't going to sink.

"WE DID IT!" All ten of them ran together into a group and started celebrating.

"Who's laughing now, physics!?"

Right when all the rednecks were feeling most confident about the boat's strength and durability, Billy Bob saw a snapping turtle right in front of them. It was pointing its sharp jaw right at the surface.

After they dodged what looked like the worst; Cletus heard a scraping sound on the bottom of the boat. The turtle felt pain and swam down. Only the front part of the Alabamatanic had been damaged, but this thing wasn't as unsinkable as Cletus thought. Water started flowing in as they as it drifted out into the wide open lake. The turtle re-surfaced too early. There was another sound at the back. Boo looked out at the stern and saw the motor hanging off. The propellers stopped and the turtle was cut in two. Cletus, Lee, and Hoss ran to the back and saw that the motor and propellers had been damaged to the point of no repair. The Alabamatanic slowed down to a stop. It was in the middle of the forty degree lake, sinking, and there was no way to move it.

Cletus looked at the water flowing into the boat. "We'll be forced into the freezing lake! This thing is gonna sink!"

There was a horrible feeling in each one of them. The boat would eventually sink. That was inevitable. There were no lifeboats or anything. They would all be forced into the just-above-freezing-water, where most of them would probably…_die._ The lake was too cold. Those who couldn't stay alive and swim to safety would perish in the icy water.

But there was some hope. Tommy Joe saw another boat near where the Alabamatanic used to be headed.

"HELP! WE'RE GOING DOWN BY THE BOW AND NEED HELP!" They all started yelling. There were six people in that thing and they all turned their heads. They saw that the bow of this huge boat was dipping dangerously low in the water and they were clearly sinking. The one closest to the wheel swung it over and headed at full speed towards the ill-fated Alabamatanic.

So there was a chance that they would live. But that was only if the other boat could get there before the Alabamatanic went down.

Five minutes later, the boat was 600 feet from the scene. It was moving as fast as it could, but their motor was having a problem and they weren't even moving five miles per hour.

"Hey, Cletus, do you feel off-balance?" It was almost as if the front of the boat had gotten lower in the water and the back was coming up. Cletus looked more closely and realized that was true. He knew that there must be a huge amount of water inside the first few watertight compartments of the boat and this must be what was weighing it down. Everyone felt the angle getting steeper, and their hopes of survival were diminished even more. The water was just under forty degrees. The question was: would there be enough time for the other boat to arrive? Or would the brand-new Alabamatanic go down on its very first trip, right in the middle of the lake?

Zeke spoke up from the back. "Uh…Cletus, you'd better come see this."

Billy Bob, Lee, Hoss and Cletus all walked over to the stern of the boat. They saw that part of the bottom was being lifted out of the water. That's how big the angle was. The motor fell off into the lake and sank about ten feet until it disappeared from sight.

When everyone turned back around, they noticed that the front of the Alabamatanic had gotten so low that water was coming in over the top. This caused the rate of sinking to increase, and the rescue boat seemed so close yet so far. Ten rednecks and twenty-seven dogs were huddled at the stern to avoid the ice-cold water that was spread out over half the boat.

The Alabamatanic was now at about a twenty degree angle and was over 200 feet from the other boat. It was now clear to everyone that they were going to sink; and no rescue would arrive in time.

While the people held onto the rail, the dogs couldn't stay where they were with the thirty degree angle they were at and they all slid forward into the freezing water that was filling up the ship. All the rednecks watched helplessly as their dogs got weaker. Only seven were left because their owners were holding onto them. Rufus was one of them.

The sight from the other boat was spectacular: the largest boat they'd ever seen had its stern raised way up in the air and the very back was probably ten feet above the freezing lake.

Everyone stood there for a few stressful minutes until they heard something.

The part of the boat at the water level had too much stress on it. Hundreds of tiny splinters of wood flew off and landed quietly in the lake, barely disrupting the surface. Then there was an actual, visible crack. It started out small, but then ran down at about a mile an hour. The angle of the back part of the boat started getting less steep. The side of this boat was about ten feet tall, and the crack had already torn off two feet. There was a loud noise and the back was jerked hard as the split ran even further down. The end of the boat started falling towards the lake, its angle getting even smaller. The Alabamatanic was splitting in two.

"Hold on, Rufus! We're goin' for a ride!" The stern came careening towards the lake.

There was a huge splash as the back half of the Alabamatanic crashed into the water. Everyone was engulfed in water and nearly fell off.

"OH, CRAP THAT'S COLD!" Zeke yelled. He couldn't imagine actually being in it.

"HEY!" Zeke shouted. Nine people looked down. Zeke had been thrown into the water and was in extreme pain.

"Hold on, Zeke!" Bubba screamed. "I got you!"

He bent way over and Tommy Joe grabbed his feet to keep him from falling off. Zeke got hold of Bubba's hands and Bubba tried to pull him out. But from the position of his arms, he was too weak.

Cletus looked just in time to see the front part of the boat disappear into the lake. The bottom, however, was still attached, causing the stern of the Alabamatanic to be dragged upwards. Bubba was also pulled up, dragging Zeke out of the water with him. But he was too heavy. Bubba slipped out of Tommy Joe's weak grip. Zeke and Bubba both fell back into the lake as the stern was raised higher. It looked like it was soon going to be vertical. Tommy Joe leaned over as they were raised higher and looked at the two of them dying in the water. There was nothing he could do; they were out of reach.

"I'm sorry, guys! I tried!" He thought about it for a second. "Rednecks make up for their mistakes!" He jumped into the water. Zeke was already dead and Bubba was dying quickly. Tommy Joe's last words were: "And I'm…a g-good…r-r-redneck. This w-waters so freez-zing."

The angle of the stern was about seventy degrees. It was way too steep to stay where they were. They need to get on top of the stern and literally stand on the side of the boat, which would eventually be vertical. Cletus held Rufus tighter.

"WE HAVE TO MOVE!" Everyone grabbed their dogs and climbed up on top of the boat. They were lying on top while the back was completely vertical, about twenty feet in the air, hovering over the deadly water. The rescue boat was 150 feet away and couldn't believe that sight.

Below the surface, also just out of sight for everyone, the front part of the Alabamatanic started to break off. Hundreds of splinters were released towards the surface and when Cletus saw them, he realized what must be happening.

The front picked up a speed of about ten miles per hour as it went down. It reached the bottom of the lake, about a hundred feet down, striking with the head first. There was a crunch in the middle and as the entire thing flattened out; there was a partial break in it, running about halfway down. The bottom was pressed into the lake's floor, and the ten-foot tall boat was embedded about three feet into the mud, leaving around seven feet resting above the mud.

Back at the surface, Rufus, Cletus, and the other dogs and rednecks were lying on top while the back half just hovered.

There was a sudden, mild jerk and they saw the water coming closer. The Alabamatanic was taking its final plunge.

"Alright, guys! This is it!"

There were fifteen feet to the water and the Alabamatanic was picking up speed.

Pieces of wood broke off with sudden, weird noises and there were now twelve feet to the water.

"This thing is gonna suck us down. Take a deep breath when I say." Hoss and Cooter nodded their heads with nine feet left.

Cletus waited for the right moment. There were six feet until the water.

"We're gonna make it, guys! Trust me!"

"We trust you!"

An entire plank of wood fell off the left side of the boat and into the lake. Cletus's boat was moving faster downward.

"Ready? _Ready!?_ _**NOW!"**_

The seven remaining rednecks on board sucked in a huge breath.

Debris-filled water sloshed around the unlucky boat as the Alabamatanic was overtaken by the lake. The very back was the last to go down and it was painful for Cletus to see the final few dry feet get covered. A wave of water spilled over the word ALABAMATANIC and the boat went under for good. It was also what everyone was standing on. Cletus was too shocked to do anything and he stood there as the water reached his knees, his waist, his chest, and eventually, it covered his head.

The suction of the water pulled them all down about fifteen feet. That far below the water, it was just above freezing. The pain was terrible. Cletus saw an object that he knew was a boat disappear into the darkness as it headed towards the bottom of the lake. The last thing he ever saw of it was the word that he could barely make out from where he was: ALABAMATANIC.

_"And I still have a mental picture of exactly what I saw. The last time I ever saw that word was the last time I ever saw that boat. That one image still haunts me day and night."_

The pressure was so painful at that level. Cletus was determined to get back up above the water. The suction of the boat ended as it drifted further downwards. He swam as fast as he could.

When he finally reached the surface, he was gasping for breath. After almost two minutes, he looked around. Seven rednecks had gone under. Only four had re-surfaced. Cletus knew that the suction had pulled them too far under and the shock from the cold was too much for them to come back up. By now, Boo, Lee and Hoss couldn't be anything but dead. Four rednecks remained alive: Billy Bob, Cooter, Hunter and Cletus. They were all slowly dying.

"RUFUS! WHERE IS YOU!?" Rufus was pulled under by the suction.

Below the water, a struggling dog was slowly coming back up, not knowing what was going on. Cletus saw him twenty feet away.

"RUFUS! RUFUS!"

Cletus and Rufus swam towards each other. There was a large piece of debris that had broken off while the boat was taking its final plunge.

"Come on, Rufus! Over here!" He climbed up on it, then pulled Rufus up.

"HOLD ON!" The plank turned over; it couldn't hold them both. Cletus got back on it, but Rufus had to stay in the freezing water.

Seventy-five feet below the surface of the lake, the stern of the Alabamatanic was moving at twelve miles per hour. The lake floor was visible about ten feet before impact. The stern came closer, and it landed completely right-side-up. In the middle, there was another little split from the force of the crash, and a bunch of pieces of wood fell of and slowly landed on the lake floor. After they settled down, the Alabamatanic was done making the last movements it would ever make.

Hunter was whispering. "I…I d-died a r-r-redneck." Cletus turned his head over in that direction and saw the last bit of Hunter's dead face fall into the water.

The rescue boat was eighty feet away.

"Rufus!" Cletus said, shivering. "It's just…gon…na take them….a few…minutes to g…get the b-boat over…here. H-hold o…n, Ruf…us."

Cletus grabbed Rufus' paws to keep him up. But Rufus was getting weaker and weaker from the cold water. So was Cletus, just not as quickly since he wasn't actually in it.

Billy Bob let out an agonized yell. "Git-R-Done! I done it-t! I d-done my l-li-ife." He reached up his hand and stopped moving. He was dead. Only Cooter, Cletus and Rufus were left. All the other dogs in the water were dead. And Rufus was fading away.

Cletus looked over at Cooter, twenty feet away. "I'm sorry. If I had gotten us a safer boat…"

"No, Cletus. Th-This wasn't y-your fault. We had…to die sometime, w-why not tonight?"

"But t-tonight's too…t-t-too early."

"If I l-look back on m-m-my life, I lived it-t the w-way I wanted. G-good bye…w-world."

His body went limp, leaving only Cletus, Rufus and the rescue boat, which was forty feet away. There were a total of seven human bodies in the water, all of them looking dead. But Cletus and Rufus were still alive.

"No, Ru-Rufus. Y-you…you're g-gonna live. You're…gonna d-die an…old d-dog, w-warm in his c-cage. N-n-not here. Not…not this night."

Rufus whimpered and his eyes started to close.

"Rufus. D-don't go."

But Rufus wasn't coming back. He made a weird noise out of his noise and his arms went limp. He was gone.

The other boat didn't see anyone moving. Cletus was so cold that he couldn't really move at all.

The only chance of rescue was so close. The people in that boat looked around at the bodies. "HELLO! CAN ANYONE HEAR ME!?"

Cletus might be saved. But there would be no getting out for Rufus. He was dead.

When they saw no reaction from anyone, they assumed they were all dead in the icy water. They turned around and started to head towards land to go report it.

"G-guys!" Cletus started talking as loudly as he could, which was too quiet. "Come back! C-come back! Please come…back! C-Come back! Come back!"

But they couldn't hear him, and they weren't turning around.

Cletus looked down at Rufus's expressionless, dead face. To get the people to hear him, he'd have to let Rufus go and make some serious noise. Cooter's banjo was about ten feet away in the water. If he could get over there and play even one string one time, he might be saved. He didn't even know if he had the life left in him to swim that far. But he was going to try. He'd have to let go of Rufus. He looked at his dog's closed eyes.

"Bye, R-Rufus. I…I won't…I'll n-n-never….…I'll never let go."

He thought about it for a moment before adding, "By the way…you're duuuuuuummb."

He let go and Rufus' nose was the last thing that was ever above the lake. It slipped below the water with a tiny ripple, and he started to sink faster, after disappearing from sight altogether about ten feet below the surface.

Cletus rolled off of the debris and swam over to the banjo. The water was so freezing. Cletus reached the banjo and put his finger under a string. He pulled up as hard as he could. It made a weak noise, but possibly just enough to get to the other boat. He plucked it again.

The people in the boat turned their heads. Cletus could see blurry images of arms and hands.

They swung the nose around to Cletus and drifted towards him. They were so close yet so far. Cletus passed out when the boat was ten feet away. Twenty seconds later, more dead that alive, he was dragged from the water that had killed twenty-seven dogs and nine rednecks, leaving him as the only survivor.

Now, as Cletus finished up the story, the team looked at him in fascination, and they were thrilled to be the first ones to hear it.

"I'm not sure what happened after that, but I do know that the story made the front page of the paper, and that's how the lake was named Lake Rufus, after my one true friend. Since this is a small town, everyone knows the story. No one ever boats out there anymore, partly because they're afraid the lake might be cursed and just in memory of what's still there, the Alabamatanic and the brave men and dogs that died on it, resting in their graves at the bottom of Lake Rufus. You know, the bodies never were removed from the water. The guys on the rescue boat just let them sink.

He looked out on the lake, remembering this night about ten years ago. It was weird to think that his boat, friends and dog were all at the bottom. Everything on the boat from beer cans to banjos to people's bones was probably decomposed almost all the way. He pictured the rotting Alabamatanic, covered in algae. It was the biggest piece of this town and it was getting smaller by the day. And eventually, maybe in a hundred years, two hundred years or whenever, it would be gone altogether, leaving behind nothing. Nothing but a memory, a newspaper article and a rusty, crooked sign that said Lake Rufus.

**I spent a lot of time on that…all I ask is a review! I really love reading them and I would love to read yours. Thanks!**

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